How Does Weight Training Help You Lose Weight?

When you talk to personal trainers, they often tell you how critical weight training is for weight loss. How is it that lifting weights, which is also called weight training, strength training or cross training, helps you to lose weight? The way that it helps you lose weight is that it lowers your BMI which stands for your basal metabolic index. Your BMI is the rate that you burn calories when you are resting or doing nothing. Since muscles burn more calories than fat, you need to dramatically increase the amount of muscle that you have so that you can burn more calories when you are sitting or sleeping or doing light activities.

Weight training might initially have you gain some weight, since muscle weighs more than fat, so don't be alarmed if at first you don't see the weight coming off quickly. You will want to pay more attention to how you are fitting in your clothes and how many inches or bulges you are losing so you can measure your progress more effectively.

You also want to be conscious about not eating or drinking things that will slow your metabolism such as drinking a lot of coffee or soda as well as cutting back on the amount of processed foods you are eating. Ideally you are drinking just water or maybe freshly squeezed juices from fruit or vegetables. Don't be fooled by the sports drinks or processed fruit juices since those are pasteurized or contain huge amounts of sugar and chemicals which are very damaging to your metabolism and can make you gain weight.

Always put your glasses on and look at the back label's small print to see what they actually put in these drinks since they are often filled with lots of sugar. The labeling of the drinks is very deceptive so never trust the marketing messages in the front but just skip to the back and become proficient in reading and understanding ingredients and labels.

For strength training you need to make sure to stretch properly before you get started so you don't rip or tear muscles or tendons. You also need to do a light warm up of walking or running in order to pump up your cardiovascular system first. You never want to do more weight than you can handle, when you are first starting out. Focus on being able to do more moves with the weights and holding them for a longer time. Repeating the movements and holding them for a longer time is what helps to build up muscle strength.

Amy Backer teaches personal training, pilates, strength training classes in the Philadelphia Metro Area.

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